|
20 March 2007
11th-hour talks aim to avert
labour disruption
at Halifax daily
Halifax Typographical Union |
TNG Canada
Local 30130
Negotiators facing a midnight strike/lockout
deadline are scrambling today to reach a settlement
between Halifax Herald Ltd. and its pressroom staff.
Although the company has previously
said it would continue to publish the Halifax
ChronicleHerald in the event of a strike or lockout, that would be
difficult to do "without any pressmen," says
Darren Pittman, president of the Halifax Typographical
Union.
A management representative on Monday told the union's
bargaining team that the company would sell its state-of-the-art
presses if the pressmen and industrial mechanics do
not agree to contract concessions, allowing it to cut
labour costs.
"We find it hard to believe that the economic
viability of a company such as the Herald, which employs
more than 350 people, rests solely on the shoulders
of 14 staff members," says Pittman. "They've
told us the company is making a profit so why the threats?"
The pressroom staff have been without a collective
agreement since July 1, 2006. The union, says Pittman,
has already given the company many concessions and
has received nothing in return except the promise of
being locked out. Management is even refusing to comply
with a Department of Labour certification order involving
the jurisdiction of the union and its members, he adds.
During bargaining in December and at the outset of
conciliation in January, management negotiator Don
MacDougall, who is chairman of the board, threatened
to lock out the workers unless they agreed to major
concessions.
Pittman says the pressroom
staff are "furious" that
the company is treating them like this after doing
a "fantastic job" of modernizing the operation
and producing a top-quality daily newspaper. The ChronicleHerald
in 2004 became the first newspaper in Canada, and one
of only three in North America, to install a Wifag
offset press, which required serious skills upgrading
on the part of staff.
Halifax Herald Ltd., owned
by the Dennis family, publishes the ChronicleHerald — Atlantic
Canada's largest circulation daily with 300,000 readers.
It is the largest independently owned newspaper company
in Canada.
|